Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Telling

Tell′ing

,
Adj.
Operating with great effect; effective;
as, a
telling
speech
.
Tell′ing-ly
,
adv.

Definition 2024


telling

telling

English

Adjective

telling (comparative more telling, superlative most telling)

  1. having force
  2. revealing information
    • 2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities: Bladerunner's punishment for killing Reeva Steenkamp is but a frippery when set against the burden that her bereft parents, June and Barry, must carry [print version: No room for sentimentality in this tragedy, 13 September 2014, p. S22]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport):
      But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and dramatically low.
  3. serving to convince

Verb

telling

  1. present participle of tell

Noun

telling (plural tellings)

  1. The act of narration.
  2. The disclosure of information.
  3. (archaic) Counting, numbering.

Anagrams


Dutch

Pronunciation

  • Hyphenation: tel‧ling

Etymology

From tellen + -ing

Noun

telling f (plural tellingen, diminutive tellinkje n)

  1. counting, count

Derived terms